


Inside Out of Kurt Hummel

by MerryLilHobbit



Category: Glee, Inside Out (2015)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Glee Club - Freeform, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-04-23 23:29:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4896412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MerryLilHobbit/pseuds/MerryLilHobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Do you ever look at someone and wonder what's going on inside their head? Well, we know...at least, we know Kurt's head". Based loosely on Disney Pixar's Inside Out. Take a look into the mind of one Kurt Hummel, and see just what the emotions in his head are up to while we watch him on-screen. I own nothing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Prologue

As she opened her eyes, the world came to light.

Tiny and star-shaped Joy stood, looking around with wide blue eyes as she took everything in. Above was a large rectangular screen where a bright light filtered through. In amazement, the tiny yellow figure looked up and watched patiently.

A face came into light; a woman with brunette hair was peering down at them, a bright smile on her face.

"Burt," She said quietly, with just a touch of excitement. "He's waking up."

Another face came into view, this time that of a bald man with a baseball cap in a creased checked shirt. He too grinned down at them, his eyes lighting up.

"Hey there, buddy…you gave us a fright, coming so early."

Joy smiled to herself widely, clasping her hands together. Something caught her eye, and when she gazed down briefly she saw a small button on a small panel-like structure. Curiously, she pressed down on it; immediately it lit up with a bright yellow glow.

And there was _laughter_.

"Look," The woman whispered breathlessly. "He's smiling and laughing at us – he knows his Mommy and Daddy, don't you Kurt?"

 _Kurt._ Joy understood and felt unconditional love towards the baby whose brain she was in control of; it was _her_ mission to look after him, to make him happy and to spread her optimism for his own benefit.

It was pure heaven, she decided; it was just her and Kurt together, the way it should be. From her right there was a click and then a bright yellow orb come rolling into focus; when Joy squinted she noticed that it had the image of Kurt's first laugh – a memory!

But then Kurt began to cry, and Joy quickly looked down at the button she had pressed; her hand had slipped off, and she suddenly realized that she was not alone in his mind.

"Hi," The blue blob said morosely; she was wearing glasses and a white woollen sweater, looking as if she were about to burst into tears herself. "I'm Sadness."

Joy blinked. "Oh. Hello…nice to meet you."

Sadness gave a sigh. "I guess."

Joy looked between the button and her new companion. "Do you mind if I just…?" And she slipped her hand so that she was in control once more. Immediately Kurt ceased crying and gurgled happily.

Sadness looked at Joy in slight awe. "How did you do that? Can I try?"

"Uhmm…" Joy hesitated, not wanting to hurt her feelings. "Maybe later."

* * *

Although Joy wasn't sure what Sadness' purpose in Kurt's mind was, she supposed that there must be a reason and so she did allow Sadness a short amount of time each day to try out the button – each time, of course, sent Kurt wailing for his parents and Joy had to take over again.

At first it was just the two of them, watching as Kurt's days panned out and new memories form in different orbs – mostly yellow but there were a few blue in there too. However, as Kurt was moved on from milk to normal food, another emotion was born.

"What is that?!" She sneered, surprising Joy and Sadness as she glared at the screen; her skin was green, matching the colour of her dress, and the only other colour was the purple ascot tied around her neck. She was Disgust.

"Hi!" Joy greeted optimistically, giving a small wave. "We're just having dinner!"

"I miss the warm milk," Sadness mumbled.

Disgust ignored them, squinting at the screen; after a moment she made a horrified face. "NO! It's broccoli!" And she slammed her finger on a button quickly.

Kurt gave a small scream and pushed the food away from himself. "YUCK!"

A green memory orb rolled into Headquarters (as they had dubbed it) and joined the other ones waiting to be dispatched to long-term memory.

"You're welcome," Disgust said, clearly satisfied. "That could have been a disaster."

Elizabeth just smiled and speared some of the greens onto a fork. "Not even a little bit for Mommy?" When Kurt shook his head, she took a bite from the fork to show him it was not poisoned. "What about now?"

Kurt hesitated; inside his mind, the emotions looked around at each other in question.

"Hmm," Disgust hummed. "If Mom can eat it then it can't be too bad."

"What if it _is_ bad and Mom is ill?" Sadness sighed.

Joy took control once again and pulled at a lever. "We can trust Mom – besides, if we eat it then she'll watch _Sound of Music_ with us again."

Kurt opened his mouth and happily ate the food without question; a second later, another memory flowed in. This one was yellow, a joyful one, and Joy felt herself swell with pride.

She really was doing a great job, if she said so herself.

The first time Fear appeared had been after Kurt tripped over a wire while running around the house; as a result he had scraped his knee and spent ten minutes crying over his injury. Once his knee had been kissed better by his mother, he was off again.

Before Joy could get too comfortable with the controls, a thin purple emotion rushed past her awkwardly and stabbed at a button.

Kurt immediately stopped and looked around the hallway, as if searching for more wires. When he saw one ahead, he slowly stepped over it before continuing his game more slowly.

A purple memory appeared, and the purple emotion let out a sigh of relief.

"Crisis averted!" Fear announced. "Now he'll be more careful, and we won't get hurt."

Joy gave a nod. "Great job! Welcome to Headquarters!"

Finally, there was Anger.

When this last emotion appeared, Kurt was in Kindergarten and very excited about starting school (though a little nervous, thanks to Fear); he was most looking forward to making friends, much to his emotions' delight.

When Kurt spotted a boy his own age, he grinned and ran up to greet them. "Hi there! I'm Kurt Hummel!"

The other boy turned around and looked at him blankly for a moment. "Oh." He paused. "What are you wearing?"

Kurt looked down at his outfit proudly. "I picked it out by myself at the store; my Mommy bought it for me for my first day."

The other boy sneered. "You look like a girl!"

The emotions looked around at each other in deep shock.

"I knew we'd get teased," Fear whimpered.

"He's probably just jealous, right guys?" Joy tried to say optimistically.

Disgust flipped her hair. "Well, his clothes are disgusting and he needs to brush his hair."

Sadness hung her head. "That's _mean_ ; I think I'm gonna cry." She looked around at the others unsurely. "Should I-?"

"No!" Joy interrupted; she wanted Kurt to have a good first day. "Let me…let me see what I can do." She thought hard and pressed at a few of the buttons.

Kurt, though disappointed, put on a smile. "No, I'm a boy! Besides, my Mommy said that I look han-some." He almost tripped over the last word, not so sure, but there were no tears which could only be a good sign.

"Well, your Mommy's an idiot!" The boy jeered.

The four emotions were so shocked that they couldn't move – luckily, they didn't need to.

"DID HE JUST INSULT MOM?!"

In their midst was a short red rectangular shaped emotion in a shirt and tie – and he did _not_ look pleased.

"YOU WANNA INSULT US, PUNK?!" The emotion growled angrily, banging his fists on the control panel. "Well, see how you like THIS!"

* * *

It was safe to say that Anger's way of dealing with things got them into deep trouble; while Kurt was tiny and sweet, it appeared that he _did_ have some strength hidden away somewhere. When it resulted in Kurt's parents being called in and his early being sent home, it was clear that a discussion was needed amongst the emotions about their way of dealing with different situations.

"No more violence," Fear stated nervously. "That boy hit us back, and it hurt really bad. I don't like it!"

Anger glared at him. "He deserved it!"

"Mom looked so disappointed in us," Sadness sighed, on the verge of crying. "She's never looked that way before."

"Besides, we got our outfit all dirty," Disgust stated, wrinkling her nose. "Think about how many germs were on Kurt's fists after we punched him!"

Fear gestured to Joy awkwardly. "Well, Joy's in charge so she should get a say."

Joy blinked and thought to herself. "You're all right," She began carefully. "I don't think violence is the way forward-"

"Then what the HECK am I doing HERE?!" Anger burst out, scaring Fear and making Sadness' bottom lip wobble. "I'M ANGER – I'm here to be ANGRY!"

"Yes, and that's fine," Joy assured him quickly. "Kurt needs to be angry sometimes, to make sure that things are fair – but I don't think he should fight anyone. Maybe…Maybe we could use words instead? That could be just as effective."

"The kid's five years old," Anger muttered bitterly. "He doesn't know that many words!"

But eventually they all came to an agreement; to avoid the shame and embarrassment of knowing that Mom was disappointed in Kurt, they wouldn't use violence again – instead Anger would try and get Kurt to use words to defend himself.

* * *

Most of Kurt's childhood years were happy; each day came and went, bringing different memories with it – a mixed variety of Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust. Together the five of them would work to ensure that Kurt was safe from any danger that was presented to him, ranging from bullies to bad food.

And then Mom got sick.

Each emotion was affected in a different way; Anger was, for once, lost for words and couldn't think of anything to say or do. Disgust was initially worried that the illness would pass onto them but then, upon learning that it was not contagious, decided to step away from the panel. Fear was inconsolable, all of the worst case scenarios following him and entering Kurt's thoughts if he interacted with the control panel. Joy began trying to make things better by trying to keep Kurt optimistic, at least for his Mom and Dad, but even she couldn't help but feel devastated by the news.

And then there was Sadness. Already full of negative and depressing thoughts, she sat in a corner in Headquarters and cried all day long when they found out. She was not permitted at all to touch the panel, as none of them wanted Kurt to be any more upset than he was.

For a while they all held out hope that Mom would be okay – she had to be. She was Kurt's rock, the one who he could talk to about anything; going through life without her would be unbearable.

Hope was not enough though, and it was in silence that the five emotions watched on the screen as Burt Hummel bent down to look his son in the eye.

"I'm sorry Kurt, but Mommy…Mommy has gone to live with the angels."

Again, it hit them all in various ways – though this time it was different.

None of the emotions knew what to do; what was the most appropriate way of dealing with this news? Of helping Kurt survive?

For once, Joy could no longer stand being in control; she sat down on the couch in Headquarters, and slowly her face crumpled – in a matter of minutes she had begun crying, something that none of them thought was capable of such a happy emotion. Indeed, devastation had finally overcome her.

Disgust immediately removed herself from close proximity of the panel. "It's…It's not appropriate," She explained unsteadily. "I just…I'm not the one he needs."

Anger tried to be in control for a few days, but this just ended badly; he decided to step down when his actions led to Kurt having an outburst at Burt shortly before the funeral. The last thing any of them wanted was to create a rift between the two of them.

Fear also tried, but only held out for a few hours; he didn't have the energy to come up with ways in which Kurt's life could become even worse, and when he pressed a finger to a button it just conjured up the thought of Kurt's father dying too, which was no help to Kurt at all.

In the end, it was Sadness who had to take control; later on they all agreed that Kurt _needed_ to feel sad about this, to get it out of his system if possible. Although Sadness was also devastated, she was somewhat more in control of herself than the others – perhaps because she was more used negativity.

"It's going to be okay, Kurt," She whispered even though she knew he would not hear her. "Dad will take care of us."

It took quite a few months for things to become somewhat normal again; by this time they all agreed that Joy should only take the reins occasionally at first and then built up – it would be absurd for Kurt to suddenly be as happy as he once was. One step at a time, the emotions gently integrated themselves back into co-controlling the panel, making sure that all of his reactions were appropriate.

After his mother's death, though, Joy was never quite as prominent as she once had been in his mind.


	2. Chapter One

On Kurt's first day at McKinley High School, Principal Figgins told everyone that the four years they were all going to spend at that school were going to be the best of their lives.

This was clearly a lie, for not ten minutes afterwards came Kurt being pushed into a locker by a jock.

"I thought High School would be different," Sadness mumbled just as a shining blue memory rolled into Headquarters.

Fear slapped a hand to his face. "I knew it, I just _knew_ that we would get shoved into something! I tried to tell you all, but no one listened!"

Disgust made a noise at the back of her throat. "Eww, is it just me or did that jock smell like he hadn't showered in two weeks?"

"Can we ignore the no violence rule, just this once?" Anger tried, moving closer to the panel - it had been updated throughout the years and was now large enough for all of them to stand behind. "We could teach that punk not to mess with us, no problem-"

Joy quickly intervened by throwing herself in between Anger and the panel. "No, no...we can deal with this. He probably didn't mean to shove us, right? I mean, it's a busy corridor, and there's not much room...it was probably an accident..." She tapped a button on the panel and gave a small smile to her companions. "We've got to keep positive - for Kurt."

The rest of the weeks unfolded in a much too similar fashion however; it was clear that the locker pushes were no accidents, and they were soon accompanied by taunts and vile words slung towards Kurt by jocks, cheerleaders and even the losers alike. It was not easy for Joy to try and keep control, though she tried her best because she knew that Kurt couldn't do this without them. Occasionally she would allow Sadness to take over, but only when she was sure that Kurt was somewhere private where no one would see him such as a bathroom or at home.

In the end, though, it was pointless.

The blue memory orbs were becoming more and more frequent as the days went on; over the years the joyful yellow ones had gradually decreased, and every days Headquarters would fill with mostly sad blue memories with the occasional red, green or purple ones. Occasionally Joy would leave the panel so as to pick one of them up and replay it in her hands; she had always liked doing this, especially with the yellow orbs she had helped to create.

She stopped when it got too painful to watch any longer.

* * *

Halfway through the year, the emotions came to the realization that things were slightly different than they should be; for one thing, they suspected that at Kurt's age it was not normal to be staring at cute boys instead of the cheerleaders in their short skirts.

"Well," Joy tried to explain, not quite sure what to say. "The boys are a lot cuter."

Disgust shook her head. "No, not all of them. Though that Finn Hudson isn't too bad on the eyes, I will admit."

"This is just great," Anger seethed, banging his fist on the panel in frustration. "First it was the high-pitched voice, and now it's _this_! Those other kids will kick the crap out of us if they realize that we're gay!"

Fear looked terrified at the prospect. "But...but it's not like we _want_ to be gay - they can't hurt us over something we can't help!"

Sadness gave a long sigh. "Dad won't love us anymore. Goodbye life as we know it...Hello loneliness and isolation."

"Guys, being gay is not a bad thing!" Joy stated confidently. "Look, I get that it's inconvenient considering how unpopular we are, but the signs have always been there. What we need to do is make sure that we're sure about this whole being gay thing, and in the mean time keep it on the down low." She turned to Disgust. "This is where you come in; if Kurt starts gazing at a boy for too long, try and gross him out of it."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Disgust asked disdainfully.

Joy gave a shrug. "I don't know...remind him that those boys are probably carrying germs? It's your job, not mine." She turned to Fear and Sadness. "You two need to try and keep as positive as possible; panicking won't help us or Kurt."

"I'll try," Sadness mumbled.

"But so many things could happen to us if everyone finds out that we're gay!" Fear burst out. "We could be beaten up, o-or thrown out of the house...but if we keep it a secret than we'll have to lie for the rest of our lives!"

Anger grabbed Fear by the sides and shook him on the spot. "Stop freaking out and shut up!" He growled lowly; a flame flickered on his head for a brief moment, a sign that he was close to losing control. "We feel bad enough as it is without you telling us everything that could go wrong!"

"Stop fighting!" Joy exclaimed, separating them with her hands. "Look, nothing is for sure yet, and fighting will just make everything worse!" She turned back to the screen and took a deep breath. "All we can do is wait and see."

* * *

Each trait of Kurt's personality was stemmed from the creation of core memories - extremely important orbs that had a special place in Headquarters so that they could be kept safe from fading away. Each orb powered a different island that made Kurt who he was, from what he considered important to skills and hobbies.

Firstly there was Family Island; this was powered by the joyful memory of Kurt playing tea parties with his parents on a summer afternoon - quite an amusing sight to look back on for the emotions, considering the fact that Kurt's dad had looked ridiculous eating pretend cupcakes with a tiny tea cup. This island had originally featured a statue of Kurt with his parents, and included details such as the old swing-set in the back garden, teddies from games and the infamous tea party set that Kurt always loved to play with. The island had suffered a severe blow after Kurt's Mom died, they realized; the statue had crumbled away, and it had taken nearly a whole year for one to appear in its place - this time a slightly smaller statue of Kurt with father, though they were further apart than in the original statue.

Joy's personal favourite was Broadway Island; originally Musicals Island, it had stemmed from Kurt and his mother watching musicals together on the television such as _The Sound of Music_. Over the years, as Kurt's awareness of the world outside of Ohio grew so did the island; now it was dominated by the image of Kurt's name in shining lights, of the fantasy of being recognized and loved by fans all over the world. As Kurt's favourite musical was _Wicked_ , there were always songs from the soundtrack that played throughout the day as well as a giant poster in the background.

For Disgust, Fashion Island had been a severe improvement to their lives; she was so thrilled when Kurt became interested in fashion and the island formed that she spent most of her time gazing out at it longingly. From the distance there were sewing machines, catwalks, models wearing outfits that Kurt came up with in his mind...it was heaven! The memory of Kurt's amazement upon realizing he could make his own outfits powered it, and as his sense of fashion developed more green orbs began to come in - mostly at the sight of other teenage boys' hideous outfits.

Other islands had fallen throughout the years though; Friendship Island was gone now, as all of Kurt's friends from childhood had either deserted him or moved away. Part of this was their own fault: when Sadness took over (which was becoming increasingly often) Kurt became isolated and more withdrawn.

Although they were all rather disappointed that Kurt only had three islands left, Joy managed to come up with an optimistic approach to cheer them all up.

"We're only just starting out in life!" She told them with a grin. "As we get older, more islands will form - I just know it!"

* * *

Sophmore year was no better than Freshman year, much to Joy's dismay.

"Out of the way, fag!"

All of the emotions looked on in horror as one of the football jocks, Dave Karofsky, shoved Kurt into a locker for the hundredth time in over a year. Though it was not new, it was still unpleasant, and they didn't enjoy the experience.

Anger was the first to recover, and he was already starting to flare up. "Push us?! You know what, I'm sick and tired of this!" And he jabbed his finger roughly at the panel.

"Sorry," Kurt bit out testily as Karofsky greeted Noah Puckerman - also known as "Puck" - across the hall. "Hope I didn't make you late for remedial math!"

Disgust gave Anger a nudge. "Nice one."

Puck and Karofsky both spun around to glare at Kurt, the hint of a threat in their eyes. "What was that?" Puck questioned icily.

Fear let out a small moan and hurriedly pushed at some of the buttons on the panel. "No, we can't get hit again!"

"Nothing," Kurt murmured quietly. "I just said I was sorry."

Karofsky eyed Kurt up for a moment before slamming his fist down and knocking the folder and books in his hands away. Puck laughed and kicked it so that it skidded on the floor; grinning, the two jocks pounded fists and began to make their way down the corridor.

The emotions looked around at each other in slight trepidation.

"It could be worse," Joy tried uselessly. "Right?"

"Another day, another cataclysmic humiliation," Sadness whined, and she took a step up to the panel. "Can I drive?"

Joy let out a small sigh. "Sure. It's probably best that we let him feel sad for a while - it'll make it better for when he feels happy." She looked down at the floor in an almost ashamed way. "It's been so long since Kurt was happy."

Kurt trembled slightly as he bent to pick up his books; before he could, however, some passing students kicked them further away and giggled. Anger made to move for the control panel, but Disgust stopped him and shook her head.

Suddenly there was a low buzz and all of the lights in Headquarters cut out; in near darkness, the emotions could only look around at each other in confusion - and then they saw it.

"The control panel's turned off!" Fear stated, voice suddenly high-pitched.

Sadness pushed at a button but to no avail - nothing happened. Her fellow emotions gathered around and began to fiddle with different buttons or levers in the hopes of doing something to regain control.

"What's happening?" Sadness cried.

"I don't know," Joy answered uselessly. "It's not reacting to anything that we do!"

Anger slammed a fist down. "It has to react to _something!_ Maybe if we smash it?"

Disgust looked up at the screen and her eyes widened. "Guys, what's Kurt doing?!"

They all followed her gaze and realized at the same moment; in their panic they hadn't realized that Kurt had continued down the corridor and was now standing outside of the guidance counsellor's office. They were in front of a table with piles of leaflets left out for students to look at - and Kurt had picked one up.

_ENDING IT ALL: Pros and Cons_

"No, Kurt!" Joy yelled desperately, pushing on some buttons fruitlessly. "We are NOT going to do that!"

"What about Dad?!" Sadness thought aloud, close to crying. "He will be so s-s-s-sad!"

"But Headquarters is down," Fear reminded her worriedly. "We can't stop him!"

Sadness let out a small gasp as she realized what was going on. "This is why Headquarters is shut down!" She told them, her voice suddenly quick and urgent. "He's...he's not feeling anything! And that's why he's considering... _that!_ "

The thought was growing darker and darker in Kurt's mind, they could all see; it was as if a cloud was forming in Headquarters and blocking out the lights of reason. Fear tugged at Joy's dress while shaking slightly on the spot. "We have to do something, Joy!"

"Can I help you?"

The lights in Headquarters came back on immediately, and the panel lit up. Fear let out a yelp and as he did so he hit his elbow on one of the levers causing the panel to turn purple. Kurt jumped in surprise and when he turned the emotions saw that one of the teachers had approached them and was looking at Kurt with large brown doe eyes.

"Oh," Kurt said breathlessly, trying to hide what he'd been doing. "No. No, I'm sorry I just made a wrong turn."

"Yes!" Joy exclaimed. "She snapped Kurt out of it!"

Sadness quickly returned to the controls of the panel; to their relief, it turned a blue colour when she touched it - it was working again! "We can't let that happen again," She stated quietly.

"What's your name?" The teacher asked.

"Kurt Hummel."

"Kurt." She held her hand out somewhat cautiously. "I'm Miss Pillsbury, the guidance counsellor."

Fear hid behind his hands. "She saw us looking at the pamphlet! She's going to know!"

Anger gave him a punch on the arm and grumbled, "No, not if we keep our mouths shut! Sadness, make sure she doesn't see the pamphlet."

The blue emotion gave a nod and pressed something; Kurt's hand slid the pamphlet across the table and out of view.

"Are you new to the school?"

Disgust made a noise of annoyance. "Really?! We're sixteen!" Anger nodded and hit a button a bit harder than necessary.

"I'm a sophomore," Kurt corrected, tone slightly annoyed.

Mrs Pillsbury gave a smile and pulled out a bottle of hand-sanitizing spray. "That's awkward. Well, if you ever need anything my door is always open." She proceeded to spray her hands, counting five times under her breath before rubbing them together.

"Definitely something wrong with her," Disgust decided. "We're clean, but that's just over the top."

"...Because feelings don't take vacations, do they? They work in twenty-four hour shifts..."

Anger gave a snort. "Lady, if you only knew!"

"She's rambling too much," Disgust told them, and they all nodded in agreement. "We need to get to class." With that, she pushed a lever.

"It was nice meeting you," Kurt said abruptly, walking past the guidance counsellor quickly.

Fear wiped at his brown in relief. "That was a close one!"

Sadness looked at her fellow emotions in slight confusion. "Guys?...Maybe we _should_ tell someone. I mean, maybe Kurt's having a problem that we can't solve by ourselves..."

"Are you nuts?!" Anger snapped, making her take a step backwards in surprise. "If they find out about Kurt being this unhappy, they'll put him on pills and it'll mess with us! We'd all get influenced by it!"

"Not to mention the counsellors involved," Disgust agreed, wrinkling her nose. "In every movie or book that we know of, counsellors don't actually care about our well-being - or Kurt's - and it would be a huge waste of time."

Joy tried to give Sadness a reassuring smile. "Maybe if everything else fails then we can talk about it - but come on! We know Kurt better than anyone! Of course we can help him out!"

* * *

Kurt was humming as he sewed his latest creation together with his sewing machine; the basement had become his bedroom over the recent years, and it was the perfect place for him to be alone without worry of anyone seeing him - especially his dad. He dreaded to think of what his Dad would do if he ever found out about all of the tiaras and heels he kept hidden away.

There was a knock from behind him, and so he turned off his machine before turning around; Burt was coming downstairs - and he looked as if he were forcing himself to smile at his son.

"Oh no," Fear whispered to the others. "We're in trouble. Do you think he found the hope chest? Will he make us get rid of it?"

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Anger growled threateningly, cracking his knuckles.

Joy waved an arm at them to stop talking. "Shh! We need to see what happens!"

"Hey. What's up?"

Joy looked at the others for confirmation, and when they all nodded she began her work on the panel.

"Nothing," Kurt said lightly. "Is it time for me to start dinner?"

Burt hesitated. "Uhh...In a minute," He looked down at his feet briefly and back up at Kurt, clearly unsure as to how to approach the conversation. "I...er...I got called into school by your guidance counsellor today..."

Fear let out a yelp. "She _did_ know!"

"I'm sorry!" Sadness blubbered. "I tried to hide the pamphlet, I really did!"

"Guys, keep it cool," Joy tried to tell them, to no avail. "Maybe if we play it the right way we can convince him that we have no idea what he's talking about."

For a moment it looked as though Burt was tearing up. "...She told me some upsetting stuff."

Disgust nudged Joy. "Pretend that we're happy - it'll make him stop questioning us."

Joy paused before tapping out the instructions, hoping for the best.

"I'm fine, Dad," Kurt tried to dismiss. "She's just over-reacting-"

"Look, Kurt," Burt interrupted seriously. "I don't want to talk about this anymore than you do, okay? You do your thing and I do mine. But you're all alone down here most of the time. You don't have any friends-"

Joy turned to look at Sadness; the blue emotion gave a morose nod and took over silently, both of them knowing that there was no point in pretending any longer.

"You don't understand," Kurt muttered, standing up and moving over to his dressing table where he picked up some chap stick. "School is very complicated for me..."

"I was a teenager," Burt reminded him, taking a step forwards. "I get the pressure; making friends. That's why I joined the football team."

Disgust's mouth fell open as she pushed her way to the front of the controls. "He is _not_ suggesting what I think he is! Football is so gross and sweaty - like, ew! No way are we doing that!"

Kurt turned to face his father quickly, a disbelieving frown etched on his face. "You want _me_ to join the _football team_ -?!"

"I'm not asking here, Kurt!" His father snapped, and Kurt turned away. "This is an order! By this end of this week, I want you on a team or I'm taking away the sewing machine!"

Sadness' mouth gaped open. "No...not the machine..."

"It's only thing making him feel happy nowadays!" Joy agreed worriedly.

Anger's head began to smoulder - a clear warning sign. " _Take away_ the sewing machine?! HE CAN'T TAKE AWAY THE SEWING MACHINE!"

"I got this," Disgust informed them, and with a slight tap she had Kurt turning away from his father with a withering look. "There; now he'll think we're considering doing it - no more arguing."

Fear shook his head. "No..well, yes, it will, but if we don't join a club by Friday then the machine will be gone - you heard Dad!"

Joy put her hands on her hips determinedly - and they suddenly realized that she was glowing slightly. "Then we'll join a club - there's gotta be one that we'll enjoy _somewhere_ in that rotten school! We've just got to find it!"

* * *

"Okay, that Rachel girl was super annoying," Disgust began after lunch the following day as Kurt made his way to his next class. "But she _did_ tell us about that Glee Club thing. What do you guys think?"

"Glee Club sounds fun!" Joy exclaimed, a faint glow surrounding her - it was getting stronger and stronger. "Singing and dancing - we're _so_ good at that!"

"But what if we choke our audition?" Fear questioned. "That Rachel was so confident, and we're not! We'll never be as good as her!"

Joy shook her head. "Sure we will, if we practice! Come on, this will be great for us!"

"Rachel said that she'd help us explore our range," Sadness piped up quietly. "That will help us, right?"

"Right!" Joy agreed enthusiastically. "In fact, I think we may have made a friend already - and that's before joining a club!"

* * *

"That Rachel is _not_ our friend!" Anger snarled when she walked out of the auditorium on them. "We were way better than her, I'm telling you!"

Joy, who had been in control of Kurt during the rendition of _Popular_ from _Wicked_ , could only look on in surprise. "But...but...we were so good! Why wouldn't she want to audition with us?"

"Because she's selfish, Joy, that's why," Disgust explained, rather exasperated. "Luckily I'm here; I can keep us from being poisoned socially by people like her - that's part of my job, remember?"

"We'll fail our audition!" Fear panicked, waving his arms in the air erratically. "We'll fail, and Dad will take away our sewing machine and that will be it! Even home will be unbearable!"

Sadness sighed as they began to converse amongst themselves about the brunette soprano and laid a hand on the control panel. "I guess I'm in charge again."

* * *

Mercedes Jones - that was what it took, they realized, when Joy made Kurt lurch forwards to speak to her.

"I recognize her," She told the other emotions breathlessly. "She's _such_ a good singer! She made one of the windows in her church crack - she's the perfect friend!"

Anger flopped onto the couch tiredly. "This I gotta see."

As it turned out, Mercedes was a far bigger help than Rachel was; she not only encouraged Kurt to match his attitude with his outfits but also offered him the perfect audition song for the upcoming auditions at the end of the day.

 _Cellophane, Mister Cellophane_  
Shoulda been my name  
Mister Cellophane  
'Cause you can look right through me  
Walk right by me  
And never know I'm there.

And when he hit those high notes - well, Joy seemed to swell with sheer pride.

"That was awesome!" She yelled when the audition ended and they exited the auditorium. "Guys, do you feel as good as I do?! Because we were amazing, and that whole thing was amazing too!"

Anger gave a small grumble. "I'd be more pleased if that teacher had actually looked at us instead of at his notepad - what a douche!"

"That was...not bad," Sadness said slowly, and she was even giving a tiny smile.

Disgust smoothed down her hair, looking satisfied. "You were right, Joy; that Mercedes girl needs to be our friend, she's great - even if she does dress hideously."

"Do you think we'll get into the club?" Fear asked curiously - even he sounded a little excited, though this may have also been fuelled by the fear of _not_ getting in.

Joy put her hands on her hips and stood up tall. "Of course we will. You wait and see, guys, life is going to be so much better now that we're in Glee Club - I just know it! First thing's first," She tapped some of the buttons and beamed brightly. "We've got to tell Dad!"

* * *

Joy's control of Kurt had him practically skipping the entire way to the car garage where Burt Hummel worked, and there was a smile on his face that hadn't been there in years.

"Hey, Dad!" He called, making his way over to where his father was working on a car. "I did it!"

Burt looked u, slightly confused. "What?"

Kurt took a deep breath. "I joined a team!"

"Hey! ALRIGHT!" Burt cheered, clapping his hands together. "There we go, Kurt! Which one?"

Joy's enthusiasm was making Kurt buzz as he responded, "Glee Club!"

"What's Glee Club?"

"Typical Dad," Joy laughed to the others, who were watching from a short distance away - it seemed only right for her to be in charge at the moment, considering how exciting this new development in their lives was. "Doesn't even know what a Glee club is!"

"It's amazing!" Kurt gushed. "We sing, and we dance, and it's full of inducing community-based activities!"

Fear sent Joy a thumbs up. " _Nice_ ; he'll like that."

Burt, however, hesitated. "Look...uhh...Kurt...it's not like I've got a problem with it...I'm all for singing and dancing..."

"Oh no," Sadness whispered, bottom lip wobbling.

Anger's eyes narrowed. "Go on, old man - say something, I dare you!"

"...But the point of this was for you to feel what it's like to bond over a shared goal."

"THAT'S IT!" Anger yelled, starting to head towards the console. "YOU wanted us to join a club and that's EXACTLY what we did! Not good enough?! I'll show you not good enough-"

Disgust rolled her eyes and dragged him back by the arm. "Don't be stupid, Anger; throwing a tantrum in the middle of Dad's shop won't help us!"

Joy sent a reassuring look to the other four emotions. "Don't worry, I know what to say."

"Glee Club is kind of like that," Kurt insisted. "At the end of the term we perform in this big competition in front of an audience."

Burt raised an eyebrow sceptically. "Against other schools? You know, so it really is like a sports team?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Kurt agreed enthusiastically. "Except with choreography and Beyoncé."

"Who's Beyoncé?" Burt asked cluelessly. "Is she one of the girls on the team?"

Disgust rolled her eyes. "I can't believe we are related to him sometimes, I really can't!"

"No," Kurt said in disbelief. "She's like the biggest pop star in the world." His father let out an 'oh' noise. "I mean, we could use a strong male lead but...but I really think it's gonna be something special."

The emotions all looked around at each other - in that moment, they were all rather pleased. It appeared that, finally, Kurt was in a place where he was meant to be; somewhere he could be happy and open about his talents.

Burt gave a small nod. "Okay. Good. This is good." He stood up and walked past Kurt to get to a clipboard with the day's work on it. "I still think it would do you some good to be a part of a real sports team, but...you know, you seem happy."

Kurt's smile returned. "Honestly Dad, I don't think I've ever been this genuinely excited to go to school. Thanks for pushing me to do this."

"I am so proud of us," Joy announced, gesturing for the other four to join her at the panel. "We've gotten Kurt through some of the toughest things in his life - and now we know that we can do anything, so long as we work together on this." She wrapped her arms around everyone in a group hug and squeezed tight. "I love you guys!"

"Don't touch me," Anger grumbled, although he wasn't pulling away.

Burt turned and sent his son a proud smile. "Thanks for showing up for yourself."

"Aww..." Joy gushed. "I love Dad; don't you guys?"

Anger folded his stubbornly. "Hmmph. He has his moments, I guess."

"Hey, Burt!" A voice from across the garage called.

"Yeah?!" He yelled back.

"You got a minute?"

As Burt put his clipboard down, Sadness tapped Joy on the shoulder gently. "Should we tell him now? While we're having a moment?"

Joy slowly stopped smiling; she just knew what Sadness was referring to. "I..I don't know."

Burt turned to Kurt and saw that his smile had disappeared. "What?"

The thought was in Kurt's mind, they could all see; it appeared on the transcript detailing his thoughts on the far right of the control panel.

_I'm gay, Dad. Please don't stop loving me, but I'm gay._

"No," Fear said immediately. "He won't like it - what if he _does_ stop loving us?"

Joy gave a small sigh. "Right. We'll tell Dad another day - now would just overwhelm him."

"We good?" Burt checked. "I gotta go deal with this."

Kurt hesitated for just a moment - long enough for Fear to initiate a simple and breathless response. "Yeah. Yeah, we're good."

The relationship between Kurt and his dad was fragile enough as it was; none of them wanted to risk fracturing it, especially not knowing how Burt would react. No, it was best left for a while more.


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

To say that Glee Club wasn't quite what they were expecting was an understatement - and a severe one at that.

"Well, this is going to be a disaster," Disgust decided, eying the monitor with extreme distaste as they took in the other members of the club.

"Of course that Rachel girl is in the club!" Anger ranted. "I'm telling you now, she is going to be nothing but a pain in the ass for us!"

Even Joy, who was trying her very best to keep positive, was rather dismayed. "There are only _five_ of us? In this whole school, only _five_ people wanted to join?"

"What is she wearing?" Disgust asked, eyes widening slightly. "Those are the ugliest shoes I have ever seen! And those tights...Do I even need to say what's wrong with them?!"

Sadness pushed her glasses up her face glumly. "The other boy is in a wheelchair...that's so sad! He can't even dance."

"I know," Joy agreed, giving a small nod. "But at least that Mercedes girl is in the club - you all know how amazing she is. Once it gets going, the club will be amazing, I just know it! Fear, have you done your report?"

Fear, who had been watching the screen intently, looked at her. "Of course." He jerked his thumb to a large pile of papers leaning against the panel. "Those are all of the things that could go wrong; so far the worst seem to be choking in the middle of a song, tripping during a dance move or flat out being told that we suck."

"We don't suck!" Joy disagreed, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at him - after all, it was his job to worry. "We got into the club, didn't we?"

"Everyone who auditioned got in," Disgust corrected bitterly. "At this rate, they're probably just taking anyone who signs up."

The teacher - Mr Schue - walked into the room then and greeted everyone; to Joy's pleasure, he was as enthusiastic as she was about the Glee Club taking place. He began by informing everyone what an "awesome" job they had done in their auditions, making Joy buzz on the spot.

"I told you! We were great!"

He started handing out sheet music and - much to the emotions' dismay - pairs of gloves.

"What the Hell is he planning on doing with those?!" Anger growled.

"As long as we don't have to touch any of these people, then I don't care what we do," Disgust announced.

As it turned out, their first assignment was a performance of "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat"; Disgust and Anger were not too pleased by this choice in selection, and even Sadness made a groan of disapproval, but Joy shushed them immediately.

"It'll be fun!" She tried to convince them. "Something light-hearted to start us off - the good songs will come later, when we've settled in!"

"And it's probably a safe choice," Fear added. "There won't be any complicated choreography involved - at least, I hope not."

Mr Schue turned to the boy in the wheelchair. "Artie, why don't you take the lead?"

"WHAT?!" Anger snarled. "We should be taking the lead!"

Sadness sighed. "Maybe we weren't as good as we thought we were in the auditions."

"Yes we were!" Joy disagreed light-heartedly. "Look, we're not going to be singing lead in _every_ song; there'll be plenty more coming, just wait and see! And when we do get the lead in those then we will be the very _best_ we can be!"

They weren't the only ones who seemed to disagree with Mr Schue's choice.

"Mr Schue!" Rachel begun, voice high-pitched. "With all due respect, I'm the only member who was in Mr Ryerson's original Glee Club therefore I should be getting the first solo. It's the first song, it sets the precedent for _everything_."

"Every time she opens her mouth, she just gets more and more annoying," Anger stated, causing Disgust to nod in agreement. "We can't be here with her every Glee Club meeting as she whines on - eventually I'll lose it!"

Fear rubbed at his face in near-exhaustion. "Anger has a point, Joy; she's so loud and annoying that she'll _demand_ to have every song to herself - we'll never get to sing!"

"Mr Schue is a teacher and he knows what he's doing," Joy assured them, although she did look rather unsure as to how to handle this. "He won't let her do that every week, and he'll make sure that everyone gets to sing - he'll keep it fair."

Mr Schue also looked a little unsure as to what to do. "Rachel, Artie's going to have the first solo. Period. You and everyone else are going to have plenty of opportunities for a solo. We'll all take turns. In fact, I was thinking that for Sectionals we'd do a medley from _Grease_. Who wants the Sandy part?"

"US! WE WANT IT!" Joy exclaimed, making Fear jump as she leapt to push a lever so that Kurt's hand began to rise.

But it appeared as if they weren't the only one who wanted it; before Kurt's hand could even raise above his shoulder the hands of Rachel and Mercedes shot up - and Rachel was _not_ pleased. As she began to rant about why she should have Sandy's part in the medley, the emotions looked around at each other in exasperation.

This was going to be a _long_ rehearsal.

* * *

It was blatantly obvious that Glee Club was off to a rough start; the next rehearsal didn't improve anything at all, and instead began with Rachel threatening a sing-off with Mercedes to prove who was the better singer. The emotions were so divided on how to react that Kurt ended up remaining silent throughout the exchange; in fact, he was remaining quiet throughout most of the rehearsal too. So far, the 'team' atmosphere hadn't stuck to them yet.

And then a new member joined.

"Oh my goodness!" Disgust practically shrieked when they saw it on the monitor. "It's Finn Hudson! Finn Hudson is in the Glee Club - in _our_ Glee Club!"

"He is so cute!" Joy gushed, leaning forwards so as to get a better look. "He's the quarterback on the football team too - so maybe more people will join when they see that he has!"

Fear gave a nervous twitch. "We've been looking at him too long, he'll notice something if we don't stop!"

Sadness pouted. "He's straight, guys, so he'll never look at us - at least, not like _that_."

As it turned out, Finn was really quite a good singer, adding to the things that the emotions loved about him - not as good as them, but still rather good. However, Rachel's advances on him were definitely putting all of them off, especially when it involved her _running_ her hands through Kurt's _hair_ as she approached the tall teenager.

"Did she just touch us?" Disgust sneered, shaking her head. "Seriously, she is so creepy - she needs to be stopped!"

"Should be bitch at her?" Anger asked, rolling up his sleeves to get ready. "I know the kind of thing we could say..."

He didn't get the chance though, because Mercedes interrupted the song before they could - although this was more to do with the fact that she was "no Kelly Rowland" and less to do with Rachel being disgustingly obvious about her lust for Finn. In the end, they left the rehearsal feeling rather like the one before - disappointed and unsure.

"At least Finn joined," Joy tried to remind them optimistically. "That's something great, right?"

"After that display Rachel just put on," Anger retorted snidely. "I wouldn't count on him coming back."

Sadness hung her head. "Oh no...I was kinda looking forward to seeing him in every meeting, even if he is straight."

"And we still haven't had a solo," Anger continued, getting more and more enraged as he went on. "At this rate, that curly-haired idiot teacher isn't going to give us anything to do! It's going to be all about Rachel with a side of Mercedes - and that's only if we're lucky! But mark my words, it _will_ be the Rachel Berry show while she's here!"

Disgust gave an airy sigh. "At least we have our good looks and fashion sense - we're definitely the best dressed in the club, no question about it."

Life at home wasn't too much better either; though Burt had been satisfied with their joining a club, there hadn't been much interaction between the two since the conversation in the automobile shop. Instead, they spent just as much time as ever in their bedroom in the basement downstairs with the sewing machine and reading fashion magazines, only ever surfacing for school and meals; they were still lonely and isolated from everyone else, even after their attempts.

Most importantly, they still hadn't told Burt that they were gay.

"I still say we don't tell him," Fear said when the topic came up again. "Look at him; he's so masculine and tough that us being gay will...well, he'll either kick us out or never speak to us again."

"He has a point," Sadness agreed. "Dad will be so d-disappointed in us if we tell him...and he'll never speak to us again, a-a-and..." She broke off to cry loudly, giving great big sobs.

Anger sent her a glare. "Hey, stop that!"

"Yeah, Sadness!" Disgust whined, taking a step back from her. "You're getting my dress all wet!"

"We can't hide it forever," Joy tried to argue. "I mean, the only other alternative is going through life pretending that we're something we're not - that will ruin Kurt! Besides, he deserves better than that kind of life; he deserves to be happy with whoever he wants!"

"If the jocks at school find out," Fear continued to panic. "They'll beat us up so bad that we'll be in hospital - that's what happens to the gay kids in this place, they get beaten to a pulp!"

Joy scratched her head as she watched them continue to panic; maybe, she thought to herself, they hadn't quite come to terms with it, at least not like she had. Maybe they just needed more time to get used to it. Whatever the case was, it was clear that coming out wasn't in the near future.

* * *

To their relief, Glee Club ended up not being as bad as they thought.

At first things seemed to get worse; they didn't get the solo they'd been hoping for immediately, Mr Schue decided he was leaving for a better job elsewhere, and there was a brief time where Finn quit before re-joining again (much to Anger's annoyance). However, it was clear that there was something special about to happen when the six members of Glee Club met in the auditorium to perform something that Finn had helped them put together after he returned, much to the amazement of the five emotions.

As the opening bars to "Don't Stop Believin'" played, Joy began to hum along and tapped her fingers on the control panel rhythmically. Anger, who had initially been wary of the arrangement put together by Finn, watched the screen with a somewhat large grin - _this_ had been what they wanted when they joined, _this_ kind of performing together and playing off one another. Even Sadness looked happier than usual, and out of the corner of her eye Joy caught her tapping her foot lightly in time with the song; Fear was nodding to himself in satisfaction, for once not too bothered about the risks that might have been present, and he began to mumble the words under his breath.

Disgust, meanwhile, just folded her arms knowingly. "Okay, so the costumes aren't the best," She decided aloud. "But everything else - _perfect_."

"We sound amazing!" Joy exclaimed happily, clasping her hands together. "We're only singing back-up, and we still sound amazing!"

"All of us do," Anger grudgingly admitted, much to their surprise. "Even that Rachel girl; she's a little less annoying when she sings...sometimes."

Sadness wiped a tear away from her eyes - but she was _smiling_ too. "Guys, don't you realize? For the first time since we joined this school, we're included in something - we're actually included!"

After the performance, there was the sound of clapping and when Kurt looked up the emotions saw on the monitor that it was none other than Mr Schue; he'd been watching them, it appeared, and he looked extremely impressed. In fact, they realized, he was so impressed that he then announced he was _staying_ to coach them for Sectionals.

"That's more like it!" Anger yelled, pumping a fist in the air.

Disgust gave a hair flip but looked pleased nonetheless. "He's not so bad really, is he?"

"No," Sadness agreed quietly. "He does kinda like us after all."

"And we won't be on our own to prepare for the competition!" Fear told them, looking extremely relieved. "We might actually have a shot of winning this thing!"

Joy beamed like an idiot as she put her arms around them and bounced on the spot. "This is gonna be so great! We're going to get to sing and dance, and we might even win a trophy for it! Not only that, but we might even make some friends as well! I can't wait to see what happens, guys!"

* * *

Glee Club's start was eventful, at least, and not something that could easily be forgotten. For one thing, they had to perform in the upcoming assembly; when Joy heard this, she practically flew around Headquarters in delight while Fear began biting his nails quietly. Anger, at this particular point, was more het up about the choice of song; disco, to him, was not a style that he wanted them to perform.

"The song sucks!" He told them all loudly, shaking his head in disapproval.

"It's really old, that's what," Disgust said with a contorted face. "There is no _way_ that we are performing this in the assembly in front of the whole school; I won't let us embarrass ourselves to the point of more dumpster tosses and slushie facials." On the mention of slushies, she barely contained a shiver.

"Ah, come on!" Joy stopped bouncing around Headquarters and stood in front of them determinedly. "It'll be fun, even if the song does suck! Be more happy, guys!"

Disgust raised an eyebrow. "That's _your_ job, Joy, not ours."

"It might be fun," Sadness allowed carefully, almost unsure of speaking. "As long as we don't get slushied, it could be okay."

In the end, they didn't end up performing a disco song for the assembly - no, because Rachel (who had elected herself as the unofficial leader of the group, much to Disgust and Anger's dismay) decided that what they needed to do to sell the club was to give them want they wanted.

And, no, it wasn't blood like Fear was afraid of - it was _sex_ , something that made him even more nervous.

"We don't know how to be sexy!" Fear panicked, close to hyperventilating before they went onstage. "We've never even kissed anyone, let alone done _that_!"

"We can just wing it!" Joy told him, trying to be supportive.

Disgust closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "He's right, Joy. We don't know the first thing about sex - how are we supposed to sell it to all of those people? They'll take one look at us and know."

Joy thought hard for a moment. "Well...we should start by thinking of something sexy...what do we think is sexy?"

The other four emotions looked around at each other, not quite sure what to say; it wasn't something that any of them had given a lot of thought to.

"We must find _something_ sexy!" Joy stated somewhat desperately. "I mean, we know we're gay so we must find boys sexy, right?"

"Some boys are cute," Sadness offered.

Joy gave a nod. "Okay! That's a start! Let's think...Finn Hudson is super cute! Let's talk about Finn." She gestured for them to move closer to her, waiting until they all stepped forwards before continuing. "Alright, so...imagine that we are alone with Finn Hudson in...in the choir room-"

"The choir room?" Anger asked, raising a brow.

"Or our bedroom," Joy allowed. "Either one of those is good. So we're alone _somewhere_ with Finn, and-"

Sadness raised a hand. "Why are we alone with Finn?"

Joy resisted the urge to face palm herself and grit her teeth together. "I don't know, Sadness, use your imagination. Anyway, we're alone with Finn - just us and him - so what do we want to do with him?"

Fear nervously made a motion to answer. "Uhh...we could talk to him?"

"Uhh...that's a start. Anything else?" There was no reply, so Joy gave a sigh - it was going to have to be her to start them off. "Maybe we could kiss him?"

Sadness went pink in the cheeks. "But he's straight, he wouldn't let us!"

"The point of this is to _pretend_ ," Joy explained, feeling very much like she was going crazy. "Pretend that, for this, Finn is not straight. To start, we could kiss him. There, what next?" Again, there was no answer. "You guys, this is important! Do you want to give a great performance or not?"

"Fine," Anger snapped. "After we kiss him, we take off all of his clothes and kiss him again!"

"That's perfect!" Joy exclaimed, rather pleased. "Finn is naked; next?"

Anger rolled his eyes but continued. "Well, what else?! He's naked, the only thing left to do is to take off our clothes!"

"And...and maybe we're shy!" Fear blurted nervously. "So he tells us it's okay, and that we're perfect!"

"And strokes our face with his thumb!" Sadness added.

Joy gave a small laugh. "See? We're getting there! What about you, Disgust?"

The green emotion gave a shrug. "I...I don't know...I mean, how does all of the gay sex stuff work?"

"We hump him!" Anger announced, giving a smirk to himself. "Let him know who's boss!"

Safe to say, by the time they went out to perform, there was a lot of sexual thought going on around Kurt's brain; it was no wonder he was moving his hips the way he was, or the fact that he smacked Finn on the butt halfway through (on an impulse from Anger). Disgust wasn't so keen on the idea, almost gagging when the others began to tell her what they thought 'gay sex' involved.

"That's almost as bad as having sex with a girl!" She moaned, looking pained. "That's so disgusting! Think about all the germs involved, and all of the illnesses...and the mess afterwards! I can't even...bleugh!"

"Well, we could be wrong," Joy assured her hurriedly. "We still need to do some research into the matter before...well, before we go out there and start dating, I guess."

 _And that's only if we ever come out_ , she added to herself privately.

* * *

"Quinn Fabray is joining?!" Sadness cried in dismay, and the others gathered behind her around the control panel. "This is so terrible! She's horrible, and she'll bully us if we stay!"

"Well, we did need more people in the club," Joy mumbled, not quite sure what else to say. "And if the popular kids join then we'll end up with enough to go to competitions with, right?"

Fear shook his head. "No. Something's not right. The popular kids hate us and the others in Glee Club - they slushied Rachel just this morning! And the less dumpster tosses we receive the better!"

"Fear's right, Joy," Disgust stated, although she did look rather disappointed. "We need to think about surviving in this place; although this Glee Club is doing us and Kurt some good, we can't stay here if we just end up getting pushed out and bullied."

Joy couldn't believe that they were all giving in so easily; okay, sure, a few of the cheerleaders joining wasn't exactly the best news that they could have hoped for but it wasn't the worst - at least the club was still going and they hadn't lost any members since the assembly. No, it was just a small thing that they could deal with because, in the long run, it was for the greater good.

"It's not just Quinn," Joy reminded them optimistically. "There's that blonde Brittany girl too!"

"You mean the school slut?" Disgust sneered, crossing her arms.

Joy frowned at the green emotion. "Brittany isn't mean, not like Quinn Fabray is; I actually think that she's rather nice. Besides, I don't think that we have any right to insult her - we barely know her!"

"I agree," Sadness added hesitantly. "Brittany is alright...but Quinn and Santana are two of the meanest girls in the school, and they're joining too." She winced at the idea of what might happen when they joined.

Joy gave a shrug. "They might be nice underneath - you never know."

"No," Anger disagreed in a deadpan. "They're just Grade-A bitches."

"Well, either way, we are not leaving this club," Joy said firmly, putting her hands on her hips. "No one - and I mean _no one_ \- is making us quit, and we are sticking to that! If they don't like us, then they can leave; we were here first."

"We're one of the originals," Sadness added.

Joy nodded. "Exactly. See, guys: if Sadness can stick with it then so can you guys!" The other emotions did looked a lot more assured, much to Joy's pleasure, and so she continued with, "Everything is going to be okay; we'll all make sure of it. If anyone is out of line, then...Disgust, Anger, you both know how to deal with it! Fear, I suppose we do need _some_ caution as far as new members are concerned; you can make sure we don't say anything that might get us on the cheerleaders' bad side. Sadness..." She hesitated while the blue emotion just looked up at her hopefully. "Well, we've established that sometimes Kurt needs to feel sad, so if something goes wrong then you're in charge."

"What about you?" Fear asked while Sadness struggled not to look too disappointed.

Joy beamed. " _I'm_ going to make sure that Kurt has an awesome time in this club no matter what, duh! Now, let's get to it!"

* * *

In truth, Kurt took a rather backseat approach to Glee Club for the first few weeks; he didn't get too involved in the dramas that Rachel was creating for herself (and Finn, being honest), although he did willingly vote to bring Dakota Stanley to help the Glee Club when Mr Schue began to be more involved with his new acapella group. Other than that though, Kurt kept mainly to himself.

Well...apart from where Mercedes Jones' outfits were concerned; Disgust just _had_ to make sure Kurt told her what was wrong with the clothes she wore, though it was usually in a bantering way between the two of them.

In fact, it appeared that Mercedes was the closest thing to a friend that Kurt had - a fact that thrilled his emotions since he hadn't had friends for what felt like years (upon further reflection, they realized that it _was_ years). One day, after a particularly trying Glee Club rehearsal where Rachel had done nothing but talk and talk - as usual - Mercedes and Kurt had been standing by his locker and talking.

Mercedes turned to Kurt and sighed. "Have you ever kissed anybody?"

Disgust scoffed. "I wish."

"Yes. If by somebody you mean the tender crook of my elbow," Kurt said dryly, reaching for some hairspray and spraying it into his immaculate hair. When Mercedes said nothing, he held back a sigh. "No. I haven't...but I want to."

Sadness pointed to the monitor. "Poor Mercedes...all she can see is people making out."

Disgust wrinkled her nose as she reached for a lever on the panel. "Well, they are being disgustingly obvious."

"Okay. Stop it right there, Mercedes," Kurt instructed, moving closer to her. "We are in _Glee club_. That means that we're at the bottom of the social heap...Special-Ed kids will get more play than we will. The only thing that gets me by is my knowledge that we are superior to all of them." He hooked his arm under Mercedes' own and began to walk with her down the hallway. "What are you wearing on our 'Operation Dakota Stanley' field trip?"

Mercedes looked incredulous. "Is there a dress code?"

"No, but every moment of your life is an opportunity for fashion," Kurt stated obviously, and Disgust nodded to herself in agreement. "We'll hit the mall after school. Meet me at Lunch." With that, he unlinked their arms before heading down the hallway for his next class.

Joy was ecstatic. "We have someone to go shopping with! We actually get to go shopping with someone!"

"If only to give Mercedes a better wardrobe," Disgust added, although she did look rather pleased too.

"I'm glad we've made a friend," Sadness said, pushing her glasses further up her nose. "Maybe we won't feel so lonely now."

Anger gave a nod. "At least it's not Rachel."

Fear, however, was biting his nails anxiously. "If we've made a friend, then how come we don't have a new Friendship Island?"

This fact made the other emotions stop celebrating and become more sombre.

"Well..." Joy started unsurely. "Maybe...Maybe it'll take time. I mean, maybe because of what happened with Kurt's other friends there's some kind of trust issue? Perhaps it'll just take time?"

"Or maybe we need more than one friend," Anger muttered, good mood gone. "One friend won't be enough to create a whole island!"

Joy bit her lip. "Maybe. But let's just take this one step at a time for now."

* * *

For 'Operation Dakota Stanley', Kurt was given the chance to show off his new car - and, boy, was it a beauty! He offered to give as many of the New Directions as possible a ride to Carmel High, and he felt immense pride (thanks to Joy and Disgust co-piloting the panel) when everyone gazed in amazement at the sleek black vehicle.

"Damn, Kurt, this car is fly," Mercedes stated, clearly impressed.

"My dad got it for my Sweet Sixteen after I promised him I'd stop wearing form-fitting sweaters that start at the knee," Kurt began, and he smiled coyly when everyone looked at his outfit; his red sweater stopped, as expected, at the knee. "What he doesn't know doesn't hurt him."

"I feel bad about breaking our promise to Dad," Sadness sighed.

Disgust rolled her eyes. "Yes, but it's for a good cause - you can break any promise if it's in the name of fashion."

They found two of the Vocal Adrenaline members outside; one was heaving heavily into a bin while the other had what looked like a neck sprain, judging by the bandage around it. Rachel - bossy and in charge as always - asked where they could find Dakota as they wanted him to help coach their club; the girl heaving looked up, extremely tearful and warned them not to hire him as, and quote, he was "a monster".

"That's...not good," Anger said, slightly put off by this.

Fear gave a small whimper. "Why did we agree to this? Why the hell did we agree to this?!"

When they actually went inside, they watched Vocal Adrenaline perform 'Mercy'; they were so much better than the New Directions, that much was obvious, and their dancing was certainly better than that of Mr Schuester.

Not everyone seemed to think that way though.

"GET OFF MY STAGE!"

That voice was coming from a tiny man sat near the front of the stage, looking completely unimpressed by the number he'd just seen. The emotions could only watch in stunned silence at how flippant this Dakota Stanley was; his standards must have been extremely high.

The club pursued him outside, Rachel and Tina begging him to help their Glee club. Dakota seemed uninterested, simply stating that if they wanted to hire him, it would cost eight-thousand dollars per number - and then a ten-thousand dollar bonus if they placed in the top three (which, according to him, they would if he took over).

Joy was absolutely stunned. "Eight-thousand per...how are we going to get that kind of money?! The school doesn't even pay for new costumes, let alone eight-thousand for a choreographer!"

"Well, we're done for," Disgust decided, pushing past the others.

"Agreed," Fear said, throwing his hands up in the air and following her. "Absolutely done for!"

Anger cracked his knuckles together. "Well, we don't need that guy anyway...that's ridiculous!"

"But we do need him," Sadness pointed out. "Did you see how good that number was? We'll never even get past Sectionals if we don't hire him."

Rachel seemed to echo Kurt's thoughts. "How are we going to get eight-thousand dollars?"

For once, the emotions agreed with her.

* * *

Surprisingly, it was the three cheerleaders in the group that offered up a solution.

"See, they're not so bad!" Joy announced, pleased now that they had an answer to their money problem. "They do care about the club, and they're helping us out!"

"It's a car wash," Anger pointed out, clearly not as impressed. "We'll probably not make anymore than a hundred bucks. Who wants Glee Club losers washing their cars?"

As it turned out, pretty much everyone at school who owned a car was willing to let the club wash it for them - although that was probably more to do with the cheerleaders in their skimpy outfits assisting than with the actual club itself, courtesy of Coach Sue Sylvester (something that unsettled the emotions greatly, for she was not known for her kindness).

While the Glee Club set to work, Kurt and Mercedes had started working on Kurt's own car; after all, it wouldn't do well to have it dirty, seeing as it was such an expensive car.

Mercedes sighed as she straightened up, cloth in hand. "Your rims are clean," She stated, exasperated. "We've polished them like three times already!"

Kurt ignored this. "Did you bring a change of clothes? Because we're going straight to the Sing-Along Sound of Music."

Joy sighed happily. "I love that musical; thank goodness we got those tickets!"

"So, listen Kurt," Mercedes started. "This is, like, the third time we've gone out...can't we just make it official?"

The emotions were all stunned.

"Oh God, she doesn't know," Sadness mumbled.

Anger let out a low whistle. "This...This is not good."

"Make _what_ official?" Kurt asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You know," Mercedes said, smiling as if it were obvious. "That we're dating!"

The five emotions could only gape at one another in absolute shock.

"But...we haven't...I mean..." Joy stammered.

Fear bit his lip. "We...We can't tell her though...she's our only friend...if she reacts badly..."

"Who should handle this?" Sadness asked worriedly.

Disgust stepped forwards. "Uhm...let me try..."

"I...I'm sorry, Mercedes," Kurt said quickly. "But I thought I made it very clear - I'm in love with someone else." At this, his eyes drifted over Mercedes' shoulder to where Finn was standing, trying to clean a car.

Mercedes turned around to see where he was gazing just as Rachel stood up right in front of Finn, wringing out a wet cloth with a grossed-out look on her face. "Rachel?!" She asked in disbelief as she faced Kurt again.

Fear nodded quickly, tapping on a button on the panel. "Let's just go with that - she might freak if we tell her the truth."

"Yes," Kurt said hurriedly. "For several years now." And he quickly resumed scrubbing his car as he looked away.

Joy breathed out in relief. "Okay, I think that we handled that quite well. I just hope that Mercedes won't be too-"

"WHAT IS SHE DOING WITH THAT ROCK?!" Fear yelled, and they all saw that Mercedes had picked up a rock.

Anger's mouth fell open. "She WOULDN'T-"

He was cut off by the sight of Mercedes hurling the rock through the windscreen of Kurt's expensive, beautiful car.

"HOLY CRAP!" Fear screamed, completely losing it now. "Our car! LOOK what she did to our car! Dad will KILL us!"

Sadness put her hands to her mouth. "Oh dear..."

Disgust could only gape in utter shock. "No...She did NOT just do that!"

Even Joy was at a loss for words. "Our window..."

"SHE BUSTED OUR WINDOW!" Anger exclaimed, flames erupting from the top of his head as he shoved Fear out of the way of the panel and jabbed at the buttons.

"You busted my window," Kurt stated, absolutely horrified. "How could you do that? You busted my window!"

"Well, you busted my heart," Mercedes stated sassily before tossing her head and stalking away.

Inside Kurt's head, the emotions were still in deep shock over what had happened.

"Great," Sadness mumbled miserably. "We've lost our only friend."

"Forget friends," Fear panicked nervously. " _Dad_ will murder us, without a doubt! This car cost so much money, and look what happened to it!"

Joy looked down at her feet and back up again. "Guys, do you think that...that _maybe_ we should just tell people that we're gay? Because look what's happening when we hide it."

"This was an extreme example, Joy," Disgust pointed out.

"Yes, but...but maybe coming out to _someone_ will help us out," Joy suggested. "Not Dad yet...definitely not Dad. But Mercedes...if we explain to her, then maybe she'll trust us again because we're telling her something important. Even if she freaks out, at least it's a start."

The other four emotions looked around at each other in question, clearly unsure.

Finally, Anger rubbed his head. "You might have a point, Joy. Alright. Let's start this coming out thing then."

* * *

Dakota Stanley was _not_ a nice man; the very first thing he did was hand out personalized menus (Mercedes' was just coffee, much to her dismay), and then he criticized just about everyone except for Quinn, Santana and Brittany. Perhaps the most ridiculous thing was when he tried to kick Artie out for "not trying hard enough to walk" and Mercedes because of the way she looked.

Kurt, however, was not taking any of this - at least not when Anger was at the panel. "You can't just kick people out because of the way they look!"

All this resulted in was Dakota calling him "Gash" and telling him to stay away from aerosol cans in case he "burst into flames". It took Joy, Sadness, Fear and Disgust to hold Anger back at that point, and Disgust was given control of the panel once more.

In the end, just as pretty much everyone except for Rachel and the cheerleaders was walking out, Rachel finally decided to stick up for the group; she told him in no uncertain terms that they didn't need him and that he was fired because they were going to win by being special.

Joy nodded in agreement. "Rachel is okay on the inside really, you know. She just needs to learn to stick up for us more instead of just herself."

"And she's right about being taller than him - he's a midget," Disgust agreed, smiling to herself knowingly.

* * *

In the end, it was Mercedes who approached Kurt; he had been at his locker when she came up to him, looking somewhat apologetic.

"Hey, Kurt," She greeted. He looked her over in slight disdain before turning back to his locker. "I just wanted to say that I'm really sorry I did that to your car. I'll pay for it to get fixed."

"Darn right," Anger muttered, only to be shushed by the other emotions.

Joy nodded to the others. "Okay. We'll play it by ear here, okay guys?"

Kurt looked at Mercedes properly, giving a small smile. "That's okay. My dad took my baby away after he found my tiara collection in my hope chest."

Anger mumbled something similar to, "still sore about that".

"And I just wanted to say," Mercedes continued, leaning against the row of lockers. "I hope it works out between you and Rachel. You'll have really cute, loud babies."

Disgust shuddered at the thought, turning even greener. "That is disgusting. Let's not go there."

Fear closed his eyes and put his hand to his head. "Do it, Joy. Before I freak out again."

Joy looked lost all of a sudden, something the others had never seen in her. "I...I don't think I can do it alone."

Sadness, to her surprise, was the one who stepped forwards and reached out a hand. "We'll do it together then."

Mercedes started to walk away, and Kurt closed his locker. "Mercedes," He called, and she turned back once more to properly look at him. Kurt took a deep breath. "I lied to you. I don't like Rachel."

"At all," Disgust and Anger chorused, but the other three shushed them once more.

Kurt looked around, making sure no one was there, and Joy closed her eyes; she took a deep breath of her own before opening them and looking to Sadness. The blue emotion nodded, and together they pushed down on the important button that could potentially change everything.

"I'm gay."

It was out there. There was no taking it back.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" Mercedes asked, although she didn't sound angry or too shocked.

Kurt gave a tiny shrug, not looking at her properly, and he was suddenly close to tears. "Because I've never told anyone before."

"You shouldn't be ashamed of who you are, Kurt," She told him, tone caring and understanding; it was so compassionate that Joy couldn't even stop the tear rolling down Kurt's cheek. "You should just tell people, especially the kids in Glee. The whole point of the club is about expressing what is really inside you. Remember?"

"I can't," Kurt said quietly. "I'm just not that confident, I guess." He brushed past her, keeping his eyes trained to the floor and not looking back.

Joy wiped the tears away from her eyes, and a hand appeared on her shoulder; Sadness was still standing beside her, surprisingly not crying, and giving her a sympathetic look. "It's okay, Joy. It's okay."

"I-I just want him to be happy," Joy cried, allowing Sadness to wrap her arms around her. "W-W-Why is it so h-hard for him?"

A memory rolled into Headquarters - but it was no ordinary memory. Instead of being just one colour it was blue _and_ yellow, sadness and joy in one - that, and it didn't roll into the memory stores but under the floor and to where the Core Memories were kept. The emotions huddled together and watched as it raised a new island, complete with fashion and catwalks, with shopping malls and the like.

Finally, there was a new Friendship Island.


End file.
